Newtown Interfaith council welcomed the public to its annual 12/14 Service of Remembrance on Sunday, December 14.

Held this year at Newtown Congregational Church, the event serves as a place for people to gather, remember, and pay tribute to the 20 children and six adults who died at Sandy Hook School on December 14, 2012.

Local musician Jim Allen played piano as several dozen attendees quietly arrived to the church late Sunday night, undeterred by the several inches of snow that fell earlier that day.

Dr John Woodall of the Baha’i faith welcomed everyone to the service, which he noted was 13 years after the tragedy. He called everyone to prayer and to community with a reading from Baha’i prayers. In the prayer, Woodall asked God to make this assemblage radiant, to make their hearts merciful, and bless them as they move forward.

“May each one become a brilliant star. May each one become beautiful in color and redolent of fragrance in the kingdom of God,” Woodall said. “Consider not our shortcomings. Shelter us under Thy protection. Remember not our sins. Heal us with Thy mercy.”

Newtown Congregational Church Pastor and Reverend Matt Crebbin spoke next, welcoming everyone in coming together as a community in remembrance and in support of one another. He said many who were in the community 13 years ago recall the brokenness they felt that day.

In preparing for the service, Crebbin and his fellow Newtown Interfaith Council members pondered on how they might honor that day. They realized their hope all those years ago was that the world would not be such a broken place in the future.

13 years later, they received word of the shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and another shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia that happened within the past 24 hours. This is on top of the general struggles that the United States has been experiencing as a nation to be a place of community, according to Crebbin.

“We came realizing that ... what we were hungry for was to profess to you all the need for [everyone], even us faith leaders, to recognize that calling we have ... to be instruments of reconciliation, to be builders of community, to ponder how, in a broken world, we who are a broken people might be instruments of light,” Crebbin said.

He continued by saying one of his favorite theologians once wrote that there is a crack in everything and “that’s how the light gets in.”

“I think that’s also how the light gets out,” Crebbin said. “So we’re going to gather tonight as a broken community, as a broken people, mindful that we live in a broken world, but that there is much light that we can receive and share. And together, we can find and support each other on that continued journey towards reconciliation.”

Sacred Text Readings

Love Has a Home Here Interfaith Minister Bill Donaldson addressed the audience next and said, amidst the pain of the tragedy 13 years ago, a very powerful message arose — “We are Sandy Hook. We choose love.” Back then, Donaldson said “you couldn’t go anywhere in town without feeling that love as people from all over came out of the woodwork, wanting in any way to support this community.”

“It didn’t take effort to sense that love,” he said. “It was just there.”

To that end, Donaldson said crisis brings out something that has been a part of humanity from its very beginnings. He said there are traces of this shared connection across cultures, races, and continents. Donaldson specifically noted a saying from the Lakota Sioux people — “mitakuwe oys’on,” which means “all my relations.” This, Donaldson said, sums up their ideology of the connection of not just human life, but all life.

“The message of connection spans time. You can find it in nearly every faith tradition across the world,” Donaldson continued. “These voices come from different ages, cultures, and languages, yet they converge on the same truth, that love is not just an ideal, but the reality of our shared community. Choosing love isn’t just a slogan, it’s who we truly are. All we need to do is remember.”

Leo McIlrath, Catholic ecumenical and interfaith pastor at The Lutheran Home in Southbury, said they sometimes have to really dig in and listen to the words of Jesus. He read a passage from the fifth chapter of Matthew’s gospel, noting those who mourn will be comforted, those who are meek will inherit the earth, and the merciful shall obtain mercy.

“And blessed are you, when people should revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of things against you, blessed are you,” McIlrath said.

Congregation Adath Israel member Steve Bamberg noted a conversation the interfaith council had in the days preparing for the service. He said one question kept coming to their minds — how does a community support one another in the world when their country is so volatile?

“On this day 13 years ago, a lot of empathy and compassion was displayed in Newtown,” Bamberg said. “How can we learn something from that day that would put us in the same mindset so that we can still be empathetic with each other?”

To that end, Bamberg said they all have a lot of work to do. He noted gatherings like this can help them on this journey by helping them recognize their own vulnerabilities. He read a section from Genesis, where God visited Abraham when he was suffering from a medical procedure.

“This act of hospitality is something we can learn from. When someone moves into our neighborhood, we can knock on the door and introduce ourselves ... we can always help the elderly or disabled with shopping or driving,” Bamberg said. “It’s hard to have community, solidarity, and compassion if we don’t make the effort, even if it takes us out of our comfort zone.”

Name Reading, Bell Ringing, Candle Lighting

Junior Newtown Action Alliance members Lahja Kurjiaka and Allison Holden read the names of the people who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Whenever one of them read a name, the other rang a bell.

Reverend Andrea Wyatt, director of Trinity Episcopal Church, offered a prayer for the community. Whether they came to reflect or pray, Wyatt invited everyone to use their time however they wished as she prayed out loud.

“We carry Your light within us. We offer you our sadness, our trauma, our fear, our weeping that never ends. Make of our hearts a vigil, and make of our lives a candle in any darkness,” Wyatt said. “We pray this night for light. We pray for light.”

Afterwards, Crebbin invited everyone to light a candle in remembrance, mourning, or whatever it is they chose to light the candle for.

“You’re invited to light that candle, to do so to ponder what light you might wish to honor, or hold on to, or pray for on this day and for the journey ahead,” Crebbin said.

Allen played piano as attendees started to line up, singing “Go Light Your World.”

Meanwhile, attendees passed hand-held candles between each other, lighting a candle on one of two tables at the front of the church. On both of the tables, the candles formed a giant heart.

As attendees lit one candle after another, Allen sang “Carry your candle, run to the darkness / Seek out the hopeless the tired and worn / Hold out your candle for all to see it / Take your candle, and go light your world.”

Rabbi and chaplain Shaul Praver, who threw himself into helping the community after 12/14, led everyone in singing the Hebrew folk song “Shalom Chaverim.”

While “Shalom Chaverim” is a song of farewell, Praver said one of the song’s lyrics, “L’hit-rah-oat,” means “I’ll see you next time.”

Crebbin returned one last time to wish everyone farewell himself.

“I do remind us that shalom we translate as peace, but it really means the fullness of wellbeing ... it is the fullness of life itself,” Crebbin said. “And thus, we wish shalom for all of us. Not just on this day, but for all our nights and for all the world.”

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.